Here's the next chapter. As you can tell, I love cliffhangers. Mwahahaha! Oh, yeah, and leave a review when you're done! Or else…

Disclaimer: Storyline's mine, Samus isn't. Get it?

The Wild Below

Samus ran down the corridor, trying to be as silent as possible. She held her gun in front of her, always at the ready. Caern was following behind her, doing the same. All seemed eerily silent: It made Samus nervous.

They came to a stairway leading down. Samus slowly started making her way down, always trying to keep her gun in front of her. When they reached the bottom, they immediately noticed the change in their surroundings: The walls were no longer paneled, but rock. The lighting came from several lamps built into the walls. Samus wearily swung her gun around, searching for enemies. Finding the path clear, she loosened up a bit.

Caern looked about, confused. "It's like we're in a cave or something," he said. "But I thought we were in some sort of building."

Samus thought for a moment. "I think it's been added on to these caves. It's like a base or something. I wonder exactly where we are…"

The conversation died off. They were faced with an apparent decision: left or right? The cave stretched off forever in each direction, so there was no obvious answer. After a moment, Samus turned left and began marching off in that direction. She had no idea where she was going, but as long as they were moving, it was better than standing still.

They walked in silence for a while, flinching at every sound, ready for trouble. Samus was painfully aware of the crunch her feet made against the stones. She heard Caern trudging behind her faithfully, asking no questions.

Samus was startled by a large red beetle that seemed to burst from the ground. It was about the size of her head, and had a long, sharp horn on its nose. "Zeb!" Samus gasped, firing at the insect. It immediately splattered, sending insect guts flying everywhere.

"What was that?" Caern asked, frightened.

Samus did not answer immediately. She stepped back, and what she saw made her heart sink. She had stepped on a Zeb tunnel. Zeb tunnels were the entrances and exits to the Zeb colonies. Zeb were large, beetle-like creatures with gigantic colonies. They were incredibly aggressive, and large numbers of them were enough to take even a chozo warrior down. They would attack, one by one, and seemingly never stop. No matter how many Zeb died, there always seemed to be more.

Another Zeb burst from the tunnel. Samus fired again, this time effectively covering herself in its innards. "They're Zeb." Samus replied to Caern, who seemed to be more nervous than ever. "We can't kill them all. We can only run."

As soon as Samus finished her sentence, another Zeb emerged from the tunnel, baring its horn, intending to gore the intruders. Samus fired again, and then, as if someone flipped a switch she took off in a dead run. Caern followed her, trying to keep up. It was obvious that Samus was in better physical shape than he. Of course, Samus had been training with the chozo, whereas Caern had not.

Another Zeb flew out of the tunnel. Seeing its quarry fleeing, it zoomed after Caern (him being closest) horn first. Caern could hear its wings whirring as it approached his back. He imagined its wicked horn digging into his flesh. His breathing became ragged through fear, and his footsteps fell heavy on the rocky floor. "Samus!" He gasped, trying to attract her attention before she disappeared into the distance.

Samus stopped on a dime and whirled completely around. She saw the Zeb's horn mere units from Caern. In one quick motion, Samus raised her gun, aimed, and fired. She managed to hit the Zeb squarely without hitting Caern. It seemed that the innumerable hours Samus had spent at the shooting gallery was finally paying off.

Caern ran past Samus, too frightened to stop. It didn't matter anyway, as another Zeb was emerging from the tunnel and began to look for the intruders. Samus shot at it and then wheeled around and took off in the opposite direction again.

After running non-stop, full-speed for several minutes, Samus noticed that Caern was getting tired. She was hardly feeling the effects of the run herself (she probably could have gone for at least an hour more) but she realized that Caern would not be able to hold up. She slowed down, and Caern did too, grateful for a rest. He placed his hands on his knees, panting. Samus looked behind her, and there was no sign of the Zeb anywhere. They had dodged a bullet.

Samus began to survey her surroundings again, as if she could gather some sort of clue about where she was from the rocks. There seemed to be nothing in sight but the tunnel, stretching as far as they could see in the dim light. She grimaced. She didn't like having no idea where she was, but she simply had to deal with it.

After a few minutes, Caern's breathing became more even, and he seemed to regain his composure. Samus looked to him, and he nodded, silently indicating that he was ready to begin moving again. They walked down the corridor again, still traveling in some unknown direction to who-knows-where.

After a few moments of silence, Caern spoke up, "Uh, listen, Samus," he began falteringly, "uh, you saved my life back there. Thank you." Samus shrugged. She was touched by his comment, but she did not show it. Her silence disturbed Caern a bit. He rubbed his arm nervously, as if there was something else on his mind that he wanted to say.

Whatever was on his mind wasn't there for long, however. His thoughts were abruptly severed when a gigantic creature burst through the ground.

It had a huge, round, insect-like head with one humanlike eye set into the forehead. It had two, white, deadly pincers that appeared to work as mouthparts. It could easily devour both Caern and Samus if it truly wanted to. It was divided into several segments in such a way that it closely resembled a centipede. Each segment had several sharp spines on it.

The creature blinked a few times, as both Samus and Caern froze in fear. Then, seemingly having identified potential prey, the creature lunged for the two, its white pincers clacking hungrily.